Background

Douglas Leahey is an environmental consultant in Calgary. Leahey's main focus has been in the area of gas flaring in the oil and gas sector. According to his resume, Leahey has been an expert witness for numerous oil companies such as Syncrude Canada Ltd, and Petro Canada on air quality issues relating to Alberta tar sands expansion. [1]

Doug Leahey is the past president and director of the Canadian climate change skeptic organization “The Friends of Science[2]” (FOS).

In an August 2006 Globe and Mail feature[3], the FOS was exposed as being funded in part by the oil and gas sector and hiding the fact that they were: [2]

There was plenty of money for the anti-Kyoto cause in the oil patch, but the Friends dared not take money directly from energy companies. The optics, Mr. Jacobs [founder of the Friends of Science] admits, would have been terrible. This conundrum, he says, was solved by University of Calgary political scientist Barry Cooper, a well-known associate of Stephen Harper. As his is privilege as a faculty member, Prof. Cooper set up a fund at the university dubbed the Science Education Fund. Donors were encouraged to give to the fund through the Calgary Foundation[4], which administers charitable giving in the Calgary area, and has a policy of guarding donors' identities. The Science Education Fund in turn provides money for the Friends of Science, as well as Tim Ball's[5] travel expenses, according to Mr. Jacobs.

And who are the donors?

No one will say. “[The money's] not exclusively from the oil and gas industry,” says Prof. Cooper. “It's also from foundations and individuals. I can't tell you the names of those companies, or the foundations for that matter, or the individuals.” When pushed in another interview, however, Prof. Cooper admits, “There were some oil companies.”

Stance on Climate Change

Leahey is a signatory to an open letter which declared:

“Global climate changes all the time due to natural causes and the human impact still remains impossible to distinguish from this natural 'noise.'” [3]

Key Quotes

“A critical mass of science shows the Kyoto Protocol is built on a faulty assumption; that CO2 is a dangerous pollutant. The Federal Government is prepared to spend almost $10 billion in a problem that may not exist. At the same time, Canada is causing real damage every day with lead pollution – a substance that has been known for generations to be a serious health hazard. It’s time to put the brakes on Kyoto, and accelerate the cleanup of real pollution.” [4]

Key Deeds

March 4, 2008

Leahey is a signatory[6] to the Manhattan Declaration[7] which was presented at the end of the Heartland Institute's 2008 International Conference on Climate Change. [5]

The Declaration states that “Global Warming is not a global crisis,” that “there is no convincing evidence that CO2 emissions from modern industrial activity has in the past, is now, or will in the future cause catastrophic climate change,” and that “all taxes, regulations, and other interventions intended to reduce emissions of CO2 be abandoned forthwith.”

Contrary to claims that the science of climate change has been settled, the causes of the past century’s modest warming is highly contested in the climate science community. The climate experts presenting in the video demonstrate that science is quickly diverging away from the hypothesis that the human release of greenhouse gases, specifically carbon dioxide, is having a significant impact on global climate. “There is absolutely no convincing scientific evidence that human-produced greenhouse gases are driving global climate change,” stated climatologist, Dr. Tim Ball. He added that the Canadian government’s plan to designate carbon dioxide as a “toxic” under CEPA is irresponsible and without scientific merit. “Carbon dioxide is a staff of life, plain and simple. It makes up less than 4% of greenhouse gases and it is not a toxic.”

Leahey is listed as a signatory of the 2006 open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The letter, titled “Open Kyoto to Debate,” urged inaction on climate policy while debating the existence of climate change. [3]

2005

FoS released a radio ad campaign in late 2005 that featured ads denying the existence of climate change.

The first ad denounced the One-Tonne Challenge:

“You've been told about global warming, right? You know, take the One Tonne Challenge, turn down your heat and cool the planet. But have you been told the truth? Are you really causing global warming? Find out: watch our video at friendsofscience.org.”

The second ad discussed what FoS considers global warming myths:

“Here's an easy true and false quiz. Ready?

Global warming has caused more violent weather worldwide.

The earth is warmer today than in the last thousand years.

Carbon dioxide is dangerous pollution.

If you said yes, you've been misled. Get the real answers at friendsofscience.org, then ask your MPs why they want to spend billions on global warming theories.”

According to SourceWatch[14], the ads were funded by Professor Barry Cooper of the U of C's research fund and partially supported by donations funneled through the University's Science Education Fund. [6]